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Sen. Mosley proposes permanent state office to address missing and murdered African American women and girls
Summary
Sen. Angela Moseley asked the House Crime and Public Safety Committee to create a permanent office in the Missouri Department of Public Safety to review cold cases, collect better data and operate a 'Phoenix' alert for missing and murdered African American women and girls; families and advocates testified about undercounting and lack of law-enforcement attention.
Sen. Angela Moseley introduced Senate Bill 1652 to the House Crime and Public Safety Committee, saying the measure would create a permanent office inside the Missouri Department of Public Safety to focus on missing and murdered African American women and girls.
The office, Moseley said, would collect more accurate data, review cold cases, coordinate with other agencies and community groups, and operate a Phoenix alert named after a 2011 disappearance. "It creates a permanent office within the Missouri Department of Public Safety focusing on addressing the crisis of missing and murdered African American women and girls," Moseley told the committee.
Why it matters: witnesses and the sponsor said existing records undercount cases and that some missing Black women are listed as runaways or shown without photographs — "silhouettes" — on official sites. Theta Roxanne Wilson, founder of the nonprofit Looking for an Angel and the mother of a missing child, told the committee, "There's over 1000 people missing in the state of Missouri," and said many cases are not adequately pursued by law enforcement.
Supporters described the office as a practical step to translate the task force's findings into action. Jessica Henderson, who said she leads a Child Abduction Criminal Task Force, testified that her search teams sometimes face limited cooperation from law enforcement, especially in cases involving Black women: "When it's been a white woman... we get cooperation," she said, adding that her organization conducts searches for people of all demographics.
Committee members pressed the sponsor on scope and cost. Representative Hovis cited an estimate of about $761,000 in 2028 for the office and asked why the bill focuses on African American women rather than all missing people. Moseley responded that the bill seeks to address a documented disparity: although African American women comprise a smaller share of the population, testimony before the task force showed they are disproportionately represented among unsolved missing and murdered cases. The sponsor said the Department of Public Safety had suggested an initial staff of six full-time equivalents to handle the caseload.
Advocates also urged improvements in how photos and records are shared. Wilson noted that silhouettes — public listings that lack photographs — make it harder for the public to help find missing people and called for better data practices and responsiveness from law enforcement.
No formal vote was recorded during the hearing. The committee heard multiple supporters — including Dava Lee Brush of the Missouri Equity Education Partnership — who said lived experience exposes disparities in attention and urged the committee to adopt a permanent staff position to implement task-force recommendations. The hearing concluded with the committee taking no immediate action on passage.
What's next: the committee closed public testimony on SB1652; the transcript does not record any committee vote or scheduling for a markup.
Attributions: direct quotes and paraphrases in this article come from the committee hearing transcript; all attributions map to committee speakers who identified themselves or were introduced on the record.